Ray LaHood loves to talk about CSA, the FMCSA safety plan for drivers and carriers. Now one year old, CSA has had a major positive impact on the transportation industry. I think carriers and drivers are to some degree safer even though the majority of drivers still do not have a full understanding about how CSA works. Drivers do have to take a great amount responsibility for things that happen on the road that the driver has no control over under CSA.

There are some SERIOUS problems with CSA and the FMCSA for that matter! One would be that while they let carriers with high CSA scores stay in business as if they are not worried about the carrier going anywhere. The drivers who work for those carriers are being duped into believing that CSA is a joke and if they don't operate as told by the company the drivers will be fired. These carriers will then threaten to destroy the drivers DAK Report and the drivers will not be able to get a job anywhere else. The non-action by the FMCSA to react to a carriers high CSA scores translates into ending the careers for drivers trapped by these wayward carriers.

I got call from a driver this week out of Missouri who works for a small carrier out of Arkansas whom I was not familiar with. He told me that his carrier has been requiring him to come in each week and sit with the Safety Manager and go over his logbooks. The Safety Manager would then instruct him to make changes in his log book which he refused to do. This past week he received a phone call from someone who claimed to be the President of his company, the driver didn't know there President. The man gave him a good cussing and told him his books would be changed or he would be fired and his DAK report would be so messed up that he would never be able to get another job.

The driver just wanted to know how he could stop this from happening so he could get another job. I asked the driver about the carriers CSA scores and he confirmed what I had guessed, the scores were very high.

The FMCSA claims that each month they push a button and every carrier who has SMS scores shows up in their system for all to see. Yet when they see a carrier with extremely high scores, they do nothing but put them on a waiting list to be seen. There is no rhyme or reasons for the way the FMCSA does business or how they move forward with interventions. The FMCSA has fined carriers anywhere from twenty to fifty five thousand dollars for being over on one BASIC while other carriers who are over the threshold in three or more BASIC's have not seen any action taken against them.

HOS is a major problem. Drivers are motivated by violating HOS regulations just like they have always been yet the FMCSA did not address that issue in driver training from the start. The FMCSA tried to force EOBR's down carrier's throats but that was struck down by a Federal Court ruling. I believe the EOBR's were the answer for the FMCSA in controlling drivers. Since then the FMCSA has been reported enticing carriers who are over on their BASIC's by offering no fines if fleets install EOBR's if the carrier is in the U.S. Are carriers and drivers fighting the FMCSA or complaining about it? Just quietly complaining! They do so only under their breath because of a real fear of the FMCSA.

Drivers are being held accountable because they received no formal training in how to change their behavior prior to the start of CSA and that was planned by the FMCSA.

All that being said the amount of drivers who need specialized training is very high. Specialized training is good not only for the driver's career but the carrier's bottom line. A lot of carriers have the notion that drivers have an option were they should or should not have CSA training. It is not an option. It is a requirement!

There are tens of thousands of trucks traveling down our major roadways every minute of every day. Why does your driver get stopped? Law enforcement officers lay in wait for just the right truck to come by and then that officer makes a snap decision to pounce on your truck, your driver, is that your fault?